New Discoveries and Honors in Cancer Research

Read the latest cancer research and recognition from the members of the Damon Runyon scientific circle.

January 27, 2015

Identification of two genes that trigger ovarian cancer

Terry Magnuson, PhD (Fellowship Award Committee Member), William Y. Kim, MD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘09-‘14), and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, created the first mouse model of ovarian clear cell carcinoma using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Specific types of mutation of the genes ARID1A and PIK2CA gave rise to ovarian cancer 100 percent of the time. These mutations led to the overproduction of Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a type of protein called a cytokine that is crucial for cell signaling that triggers inflammation. They demonstrated that a known drug can suppress tumor growth. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.